March 7th, 2017

Kinsky, California, USA

Here, There, and Everywhere

Lukas spent the last two weeks using any ounce of free time he could get to look at the information from the chest.

The first thing he read, of course, was the letter addressed directly to him. Right as he had gotten home from the McNamara residence, he sat down in his own room and opened up the envelope:

Dear Lukas,

If you’re reading this, then I’m gone. I’m sorry. Tell Kat I’m sorry, too.

You probably have a lot of questions. A lot of questions that I can’t answer for you anymore. I wish I was strong enough to stay around and answer those questions myself, but I’m not. I’m just not.

But what I have for you is something that might be able to still help. It’s a series of thoughts, things I’ve felt, things I did, that I compiled over the past few months. I wanted to share them with you. They’re things I could never express in words, in person.

But there’s a catch, of course. This isn’t everything. There’s a second chest, somewhere else. It’s something you don’t have to worry about until you finish this one, but it finishes the story.

Sorry for the cryptic nature of all this. You’ll understand eventually.

I’ll see you again someday, I’m sure.

Cole

Lukas had to move the letter away when he realized there were tears trickling down his eyes. He quickly recovered, however, and put the letter aside. There was a lot of reading ahead of him.

By the time March came around, Lukas was halfway through the stack. At this point he was able to at least figure out that they were in fact all journal entries, ripped sheets from what was probably a larger notebook. They began at around January the year prior, and all went in date order with a few days missing here and there.

The first thing Lukas noticed about the entries was how often they mentioned Kat and himself. Most of them were somewhat negative, but more in the way of letting off steam rather than holding a vendetta – it was on these pages he often vented his frustrations about Lukas hiding his feelings from Kat, and apparently the other way around. What was more surprising to Lukas was instead how many times Cole mentioned he was jealous of him. It was something Lukas couldn’t even fathom – Cole had all the charisma, made all the friends, had all the plans. It was just Lukas that went along for the ride. But according to the journals, Cole often felt like Lukas had traits Cole didn’t: the ability to introspect, to be himself, to do what he wanted to do and be who he wanted to be. Lukas wasn’t sure if any of that was even true.

As the journal entries progressed, they began to be less about Lukas and Kat and more about Anita and Maria. Cole would write an entry for every day he babysat Anita, mostly going over what they did together. The entries were all unassuming – if anything, there were a few mentions of how much Cole saw himself in Anita, a younger self who was adventurous and outgoing but with a million different life paths in front of them. And so Cole wanted to be her mentor.

Lukas considered updating the group of boys, as he had promised. He got as far as writing up the first text, before suddenly changing his mind and deleting the entire thing. Everything about the contents of the chest felt personal. Even Lukas – a person who knew Cole very well – felt uncomfortable reading some of the notes left by the boy. Perhaps this was really something only Lukas was meant to know.

And so, he decided that he’d keep it a secret, at least for now. If Cole had the faith that Lukas could build a case of evidence on his own, then he’d do it. For his best friend. For Cole.

…

Isaac had been waiting on Lukas’ text back to the group since the day that they unlocked the chest. And as he waited in the Kinsky High art room for one of his friends, he took the time to wait again. As luck would have it, when he opened the group chat this time he caught just a sliver of a notification that Lukas had been typing, only for it to go away. He was about to fire off a text in response when the door behind him opened.

Expecting his friend, Isaac turned around. But instead he saw the figure of Ash, a person he had not seen in a very long time, who was in the art room for some other purpose. She looked at him briefly, a mark of disdain on her face, before settling on her own business in the opposite corner of the room.

“Hey, you heard much from Lukas?” Isaac asked aloud, with his usual lack of social cues.

Ash gave an audible sigh. “Is this about the Cole thing?”

Isaac looked at the girl confused. He stood up, propping himself against the wall on his side of the room.

“Does it matter if it is?”

Ash continued to sort through supplies in the plastic crates next to her. “You know, cases like Cole’s are the reason why women are so afraid of men in the first place. Someone hurts a girl, then all his friends are there to protect him. Why would you want to let someone in like that?”

“Hold on a second – you think I don’t know what a genuine douchebag looks like? I play football, man. There’s a ton of them. I have a nose for this shit, and I know Cole was different.”

“How do you know he was different, huh?”

“He…” Isaac thought for a moment, looking back at all the things he knew about Cole. “He had a hard life, that’s how. Most of these guys think the world is owed to them because they grew up rich, or coddled. But not Cole. He learned how to be a man by himself.”

This point seemed to only irritate Ash further. She suddenly turned around, facing Isaac directly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know having dead parents was suddenly an excuse for having sex with children.”

It was at this point that Isaac suddenly lifted himself from the wall, taking a few steps towards Ash. Ash scooted back farther from him as a reflexive measure.

“The hell is your problem, huh?” Isaac was now raising his voice. “Any time I see you, all you do is spend your time blaming men for everything, talking about us like we’re monsters. And for what? Just because of shit your parents told you when you were younger? Or what you read online? What the hell do you know about any of this, huh? What do you know?”

Isaac, in a rare moment of self reflectance, realized how aggressive he was getting and began to dial it down, taking steps back to his side of the room. But it was clear that his words still had an impact on the girl. She looked down at the carpeted ground, and while Isaac could not see her face, he could hear her sniffling.

“Hey, I- I’m- that was way out of line, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that, I just…”

But something stopped Isaac. The girl began sobbing now, and Isaac didn’t understand why. She gripped at the sides of her arms and lifted up her head to reveal that she was crying now, not daring to look Isaac in the face. For a split moment he thought Ash might be faking it, but it didn’t make sense. It felt too earnest. The only thing that would make sense was if Isaac hit at some nerve he wasn’t expecting, some old memory of the past that Isaac didn’t know about.

Just then, the realization came crashing down on him.

“Oh, God, Ash, I didn’t…” Isaac covered his mouth, realizing the depth of his mistake. “I… I really didn’t know, I promise… I-I’m sorry, really…”

Before Isaac could say any more, Ash suddenly stood up and rushed out of the room, tears still flowing from her eyes, nails still gripping into her shoulders. It was all just in time for Isaac’s friend – a young black girl who was finishing a painting in the other room – to come out and see what the fuss was about.

“The hell did you do to her?” she asked.

Isaac kept his eyes solemnly on the door that Ash had left from. “I don’t want to talk about it. Come on… let’s just go.”